Kellie Pickler Interview

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Former American Idol talks about life and Country music.

By Spence D.

The American Idol obsessed know her as one of the frontrunners of Season 5 of the show. She ended up finishing sixth and earned her fair share of admiration and disdain due to her small town sensibilities (she'd been a waitress at Sonic and hails from Albemarle, North Carolina). These days Pickler is following her Country music dreams, no doubt in part to her exposure via AI, via the aptly titled album Small Town Girl.

Perhaps the most obvious (and natural) question to pose a former American Idol contestant is to ask them how their life has changed since they appeared on the show. Pickler laughs at the question with good-natured aplomb and then immediately answers it by posing another, mostly rhetorical, counter-question. "How has it not changed?" She pauses and the tackles the original question with down home sincerity. "Well, my life has definitely done a 180, for sure. My whole life has changed and it's been for the best. I'm finally living out my dream. It's so nice to have your dreams become a reality. I guess you could say from being a waitress at Sonic drive-in, now I'm a singer. It's the whole 9-yards. Everything's changed. It's crazy. But I'm lovin' it, so I can't complain."

Given the global exposure that television bestows upon its reality stars one has to wonder how Pickler is able to maintain her "small town girl" outlook on life. "I mean I haven't changed as a person," she admits. "I have no reason to change as a person. I just have a different job than I had before. I don't really feel any different. So it's easy to stay true to myself because I haven't changed at all."

With her new job as a singer, not to mention being a former American Idol participant, coupled with her admission that she hasn't changed much as a person, does Pickler feel these titles don't necessarily define who she is? "Absolutely," she says without missing a beat. "You are who you are because you chose to be that way. I'm finally living out my dream. I've always wanted to do this. My career doesn't make me the person that I am. It's just what makes me happy. I finally have a job I love getting up and going to every day. You know, it is a part of my life, but it doesn't define me as a person. You're character is who you are."

Speaking of character, during her appearance on American Idol Pickler was often derided for playing up the stereotype of the dumb redneck girl, accused of dumbing herself down to gain more votes and appeal to the masses as a sweetly na¿ve country bombshell. Let's face it, any bout of fame eventually comes with some negative backlash. "I don't really ever pay attention to it," she says. "I mean if you can't take criticism in this industry, then you're in the wrong job, you know? And that's with any profession. You're always gonna have that one person at work that talks bad about you. There's always gonna be people that love you and people that hate you. I just look at it like when they're talking bad about me they're giving somebody else a break. Obviously I must have done something right or they wouldn't be talking about me. I just take it as a compliment that people are actually interested in saying anything about me. You have to brush the negative off. This is one of the most critical industries you could ever be in, the entertainment world. There's gonna be people that love you and wanna see you do well and there's gonna be sour people who can only find negative things to say about you. You just have to brush those people off. You surround yourself by people that you want to be like. So I just surround myself by positive people and hope that positive comes out."

Despite how the world perceives Pickler, one cannot deny the veritable sh!t-kicking style of Country music that she lays out on her debut album. She laughs at the colloquial reference to her obvious honky-tonk inclinations. "I think the album consists more of a rock/pop/country. There's a lot of electric guitar and you have your fast, upbeat songs that you can tap your feet to and sing along with and that you would jam to in your car. And then you have your slower songs about getting your heart broken or "My Angel" that I wrote to my grandmother. The more intimate, slower songs that are filled with more feeling and are personal. And "I Wonder," the song that I wrote to my mom that is very heartfelt and probably the most personal song on the album. I think there's a lot on there that could fit any genre."